How Bizarre!

The other day we received a publication called "Fruit and Fleece- The Community Newsletter of Loburn School, Friday 31st October." Even though we home educate, I always read this newsletter to see what is going on in the community. It usually carries advertisements from local business people and it was through this publication that I found a great massage therapist.

As I flipped to the third page, passing a typo in the Principal's letter to the community, I saw something that really left me perplexed. Here you can see a report on the activities of the Loburn School Junior Syndicate (not to be confused with gangsters or bankers).
As a former teacher I know a little bit about what happens in a classroom. I have no issues with the jigsaw technique which is a cooperative learning technique. In fact, I think it is probably quite well suited to situations where students are from various years and ability levels.

I do have concerns in relation to this activity used at Loburn School. My first problem is with the content chosen by the teacher or group of teachers to be explored by the children of the junior syndicate. As you can see, the teacher decided to have the children investigate one of two different people. One envelope contained a picture of the late Sir Edmund Hillary and the other a picture of the controversial figure Mother Teresa. I can't argue with choosing to study Sir Edmund Hillary. This man is an icon in New Zealand and I have no trouble with this choice. As you might guess though, I do have trouble with students researching Mother Teresa. Why would she be chosen? What significance does she have to New Zealand? Was the teacher not aware of, as Wikipedia calls it, the "diverse range of criticism" about this figure? Please read more about Mother Teresa here, here, here, and here.

I believe the teacher's choice of Mother Teresa unnecessarily brings religion into the classroom. How could this be done and then publicized to the entire community? This type of activity only reinforces our family's choice, as Atheists, to home educate our children.

Secondly, I find the answers given by the children to the first question to be bizarre. Unfortunately, we are only given a snippet of what was done during this activity. As you can see the children were supposed to answer three questions about the person in the picture, the first question being "Who am I?" I am left wondering... Why would a child answer that the old woman was a person in a gang, the first person born, or any of the other answers that seem so off? Has the teacher redirected these children and helped them REALLY identify the person? What role do Mother Teresa's religious beliefs play in her identification and what religious subtext is being pushed by the teacher? What did the teacher offer to answer or clarify the question, "Why is this person special?"

I am thankful that my children were not unwittingly subjected to this activity that, in my opinion, is masquerading as learning/social studies. Here in New Zealand the lines between religion in the classroom and secular instruction are blurred. While there is no State religion, christianity seems to get more face time in the classroom than most other mythical belief systems. With December fast approaching, I am sure we will see more of jesus and his crew than we as Atheists can tolerate!